The conventional progressive wisdom is that the Trump Administration will be bad for cities and for transit users. But in recent decades, a unified Republican government has been better for public transit than a divided government.

An efficient and equitable transport system must be diverse to serve diverse travel demands. Planners need better tools to quantify and communicate the benefits of walking, cycling and public transit to sometimes skeptical decision makers.

Inclusionary Zoning

According to New York Yimby, Mayor de Blasio's proposed inclusionary zoning policy could do more to protect small market-rate developments, without affordable housing, than it will to create affordable units.

The California Building Industry Association (BIA) had taken its case to the State Supreme Court, but in the end the court decided that municipalities could require developers to set aide a portion of units for affordable housing.

Urbanism media noted the growing privatization of recreation facilities, such as pools, as one of the lessons to be taken from a controversial encounter between police and black teenagers in McKinney, Texas over the weekend.

Nashville often gets left out of the national conversation about housing affordability and displacement. The challenge, however, has led the city's planning department to launch an effort to develop an inclusionary zoning policy for the Music City.

In his State of the City Address on Feb. 3, the New York City mayor made it clear that his overriding priority is affordable housing. He targeted six neighborhoods in all five boroughs where development will be required to include affordable housing.

First, a new report from NYU's Furman Center details the evolving characteristics of subsidized rental housing in New York City. Second, the results from Mayor Bill de Blasio's affordable housing efforts are in from his first year in office.

The Boston Globe recently ran an op-ed in support of community land trusts and inclusionary housing, which was penned by the National Housing Institute/Shelterforce and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

The New York City Housing Development Corporation hired BAE Urban Economics, also known as Bay Area Economics, "to crunch the numbers on its forthcoming mandatory inclusionary housing program," according to an article by Joe Anuta.

Josh Barro examines the possible use of inclusionary zoning to generate affordable housing stock in the city of New York City finding that the only way to build more affordable units is by increasing density.

"Affordable housing policies have a long history of hurting the very people they are said to help," says Emily Washington, citing public housing and rent control as evidence. She would also add inclusionary zoning to the list of failed policies.

NY Mayor Bill de Blasio released a 10-year plan to create or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units in the city. Housing activists cheer at its embrace of mandatory inclusionary zoning, but the NY Time's coverage reveals an ignorant counter view.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the details of the "Housing New York" plan this week. The plan will guide the de Blasio Administration toward its goal of creating 200,000 affordable housing units in the city.

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